
After a few years below the radar, Paul Pope is poised to be big news in 2013. It’s rumored that the first part of his long-brewing epic BATTLING BOY will finally come out in 2013, and for sure he has a collection coming out from Image in January. THE ONE TRICK RIP-OFF/DEEP CUTS is a 288-page hardcover collection of Pope’s early self-published work.
The first half of the collection is the story “The One Trick Rip-Off” that was originally serialized in Dark Horse Presents in 1995-1996. In a heat-drenched Los Angeles, gangs with names like “The Paid-in-Spades,” “The Moolah Muthas” and, of course, “The One Tricks” battle for dominance with each other — and within their ranks. Tubby and Vim are in love and want escape, but they only way they know how is what they’ve learned in their world. So they set themselves up to be thieves stealing from thieves. And if they fail, it’s the end. A ‘nineties West Side Story, with a touch of the surreal and supernatural, “The One Trick Rip-Off” represents, to Pope, a portrait of sorts of himself as a young artist. ”I would say in retrospect, the work in this book is strong,” Pope said. “It is early and rough in places, but I was young and I was ambitious. It is good to be generous to your early work as an artist since it is the path which leads you to where you eventually arrive. There is no nihilism in art. The only fault is in stopping.” The “Deep Cuts” half of the collection is a remarkably diverse, probing, and experimental set of short comics. There are illustrations of Rimbaud’s poetry and ancient Greek tragedy; manga about curry-eating, troublemaking teenage girls; and paeans to love and sensuality and city life. These stories were created between 1993 and 2001, a period that took Pope from Columbus to Toronto to Tokyo and finally to New York City. ”These are the early steps of an artist struggling and striving to be better and to be accomplished,” said Pope of his early work. “I hope people enjoy this work. It is aggressive and it is punk rock, and that never goes out of style.”
A special signed edition of the book will also be released. The regular book goes for $29.99, while the special edition will run you $75.
Who’s publishing the collection? And will there be a digital option?
According to the Amazon page it’s Image. Wasn’t this announced by Legendary last year at SDCC? I also saw the new version of Pulphope is listed up on Amazon — said it is being published this month by Legendary.
Someone isnt getting the full story here…IMAGE or LEGENDARY?
It was in Image’s January solicitations: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=41707
Even Amazon is not totally straight on this. There is a listing for a One Trick book from Legendary with the exact same page count for supposed release this month:
http://www.amazon.com/One-Trick-Rip-Off-GN/dp/1937278042/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355454270&sr=1-3&keywords=paul+pope
The Image one does look like the book to bet on though.
Regardless who publishes it, it will definitely be worth a look to me despite owning the original and probably some of the supplimental material as well.
HI guys–the publisher is Image…it was Legendary, but they rather abruptly decided to drop everything except the Frank Miller and Thomas Tull’s books. I asked them to remove the Amazon page–in order to avoid such confusion. It was an amicable split, no bad blood. I am happy this book is at Image, a good home for creator-owned material. I am still working on a deal for the Pulphope:Redux book.
PS and yes, Battling Boy is done and will be out soon.
Paul, any chance One-Trick Rip Off and Pulphope Redux will get softcover collections through Image as well ? I know OTRO was announced as a softcover at NYCC, curious what’s going on with that.
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